As promised in my previous blog, this one is solely to share with you all the relevant findings of the McAfee India survey titled, “Tweens and Technology Report 2013”. There are so many interesting points that have surfaced that I felt it extremely worthwhile to share it with you here.

McAfee’s Tweens & Technology Report 2013- India

Daily dose of internet usage/ online hours has become a must for tweens.

a) 53% of online tweens are online daily between 1-3 hours

b) One in three tweens would miss the internet and their phone if it was missing for a day

c) Tweens are online for approximately 2 hours a day and 45% of online tweens are online later than 8pm

On an average, online tweens in India are using between 3-4 devices that can be internet enabled – laptop, mobile & desktop predominantly.

a) 61% of tweens are spending 1-4 hours daily on desktop

b) 40% of Tweens use tablets and 68% use mobile to access the internet, so mobile is important

Tweens have a clear preference for not only the devices used for internet connectivity but also the type of activity on these devices. So while desktop is preferred mainly for home work, tablets are dominant when it comes to exchanging pictures and playing games.

a) 70% use desktop for home work related stuff compared to 38% using tablet

b) 49% use tablets for playing games & exchanging pictures compared to 40% using desktop

c) 22% tweens spend 2-4 hours every day on Xbox

Smartphone/ Mobile:

Internet access is still predominantly PC/laptop based, however, mobile is important – 40% of Tweens use tablets and 68% use mobile to access the internet

a) 16% of tweens are spending more than 4 hours each day on smartphones/ mobile

b) 9 out of 10 tweens use mobile phone (89%) and tablets (91%) to play games

c) Only 15% of tweens use phone for home- work related aspects

In terms of social networking platforms, FB is by far the most popular site, followed by Skype and Twitter. FB is used significantly more than Skype and Twitter

b) All sites (especially Facebook) are more popular with older Tweens 10-12 years old (FB usage ranges from 58% for 8 year olds to 79% for 12 year olds)

c) 88% of FB users use FB to share photos of themselves while 73% use it to share photos family & friends

d) Almost half of the tweens surveyed share information about themselves over FB (41%)

e) This year, Skype has emerged as more widely used than twitter whereby one out of two tweens uses Skype compared to one out of four who uses twitter

Facebook facts-

i.89% of the parents are friends with their child on Facebook, signifying parents generally know what’s going on

ii. 89% of Tweens using Facebook have their parents’ permission to use the site

iii. 73% of Tweens using Facebook asked their parents to be their friend

iv. 83% of Tweens feel it is okay for them to be using Facebook because their parents are

v. 70% of tweens were taught to use Facebook by the parents. 52% were taught by friends

vi. 88% of users share photos of themselves on facebook, 73% photos of family & friends, 59% events and 59% information about themselves

With Facebook, a significant number of parents are handholding their kids on the platform by assisting them in setting up their account and monitoring their activities. But parents apply internet rules in terms usage and timings very strictly, much to the dislike of tweens.

a) 89% of online tweens have parental permission to use the site

b) 89% of online tweens are also friends with their parents on FB

c) 70% of online tweens say their parents showed them how to use Facebook

d) 57% claim they were helped by their parents when setting up one of their account

e) 89% of tweens using Facebook have their parents’ permission to use

f) 87% of parents place limits on online usage

g) 53% of parents remove online devices from tweens bedrooms at night

h) 49% of online tweens are frustrated by these rules

A disturbing trend on the rise among tweens is their apathy towards their own online safety.

j) 41% of the tweens surveyed share information about themselves over FB

It is not uncommon for tweens to be exposed to online nastiness; however, a good thing is that they are not passive observers.

a) 12 year olds are more likely to have seen nasty comments online than 8 year olds (33% vs. 16%)

b) 1 in 4 (27%) of online tweens has seen as nasty common directed at them or a friend online, While 21% did nothing , most of the tweens who have witnessed online cruelty either told a friend (49%), told parent (46%), told teacher (20%), told family member(20%) or someone else or looked onto internet for help rather than doing nothing

They are becoming more trusting of the virtual world to familiarise themselves with unknown people, in spite of being aware that it is risky

a) 36% of online tweens have spoken to someone online that they didn’t previously know

b) 12 year olds are more likely to chat with strangers than 8 year olds (40% vs. 25%)

c) 22% of online tweens have shared personal information online – 26% who did share this did not think it to be risky